The Crucible

Cast Bios (in alphabetical order) 

David Bodin*
​Dave Bodin has appeared in a number of productions in Portland over the years. Favorites include One Flea Spare at Shaking the Tree, Eurydice at Artists Rep, The Road to Mecca at Profile Theatre, and Twelfth Night with Portland Shakespeare Project. He’s very pleased to be here tonight.

Tricia Casteñeda-Guevara
Tricia Castañeda-Guevara is a classically trained actor, originally hailing from Los Angeles, CA. She holds an M.F.A. from the University of Washington’s P.A.T.P., B.A. from Linfield University and has trained with The International Stunt School in Seattle, Washington. Tricia has a strong penchant for the rigor of Suzuki, coupled with the ease, wholistic and integrative approach that is the Alexander Technique.  Favorite credits include Blood Wedding and a reading of Yerma with Shaking the Tree, Hamlet with Portland Shakespeare Project, The Hispanic Vote with Milagro Theatre, Romeo y Julieta with Seattle Shakespeare Company, By The Way Meet Vera Stark at the Jones Playhouse, Goldie Max and Milk and Cock by Mike Bartlett at the Penthouse Theatre, and more…Tricia is both delighted and grateful to be returning to Shaking the Tree for readings of The Crucible and POTUS or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive!

Yoonie Cho
Yoonie is delighted to be back at Shaking the Tree. Last year around this time, she played one of the wool spinners in Blood Wedding in this space. Yoonie’s recent Portland stage roles were Lady Montague in Anonymous Theatre Company’s Romeo and Juliet and Gertrude in Portland Shakespeare Project and The Actors Conservatory co-production of Hamlet. Yoonie was also an assistant director and assistant stage manager for Passin’ Arts production of God’s Favorite. Yoonie is a graduate of the Actor’s Conservatory two year training program. She wants to thank her husband Charles and daughter Jinju for supporting her acting pursuits, and putting up with her odd theatre schedule.

Jasmine Cottrell
Jasmine Cottrell is delighted and grateful to be telling this timeless tale with this incredible collection of artists. Some of her favorite acting credits include Jump, Alabaster, Intimate Apparel, and Doubt.

Jonathan Cullen
Jonathan was a professional actor in the UK for three decades, performing with the Royal Shakespeare Company, National Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe, among many others, in repertoire ranging from classics to new plays, and everything in between. He is now a resident of Portland OR, where he made his American debut at Shaking the Tree in Fucking A by Suzan Lori Parks. He has spent this summer with the Whidbey Island Shakespeare Festival, playing the title role in King Lear, and Phillis the maid in The Lucky Chance by Aphra Behn. He dedicates this show to the people named on his tattoo: they know who they are. 

Phillip Ray Guevara*
Phillip Ray Guevara (Ezekiel Cheever) is a professional actor from San Antonio, TX. Regional credits include: The Hombres (Artists Repertory Theatre), The Winter’s Tale (Portland Shakespeare Project), The Three Musketeers (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park), Much Ado About Nothing (Illinois Shakespeare Festival), Julius Caesar (Titan Theatre Company), and Native Gardens (Intiman Theatre). He’s very excited to be sharing the stage with his extremely talented and beautiful wife. To learn more about the various commercials and film projects Phillip has appeared in, visit www.philliprayguevara.com

Kayla Hanson
Kayla Hanson (she/her) is honored to be making her directorial debut at Shaking the Tree! An interdisciplinary artist, she received her BA in Theatre and minor in Communications: Film and Media Studies from Boise State University. Recent acting roles include “A” in We Wrote This With You in Mind, “Canary Mary” in Fucking A, “She” in Chick Fight: A Reckoning in Nine Movements, “Our Lady of Essence and Exchange” in Refuge, and “Grand-mere” in ____the wolf  (Shaking the Tree Theatre) and “Young Woman” in Arlington (Third Rail Repertory Theatre). Choreography and Movement Directing credits include The Event! and The Children (Artists Repertory Theatre), Arlington (Third Rail Repertory Theatre), and The Ways We Cope (Red Balloon Theatre Collective). 

Chris Harder*
Chris Harder is an actor, director, and theatre-maker calling Portland an artistic home for 25 years.  Some favorite projects include: Head Hands Feet (Shaking The Tree), Adopt a Sailor (21Ten), 1984, Wolf Play, Thanksgiving Play, Marjorie Prime, Intimate Apparel (Artists Rep), Cyrano, Othello, The Receptionist, Antigone (PCS), The Snow Storm (Many Hats/CoHo), Cop Out (Red Door Project), Angels in America, Mother Theresa is Dead (Portland Playhouse), Fool For Love, The Yellow Wallpaper (CoHo), Shining City (Third Rail) The Turn of the Screw (Portland Shakes), Anse and Bhule, Headless (Sowelu), and self-produced solo shows The Centering and Fishing For My Father. Chris is a faculty member with The Actors Conservatory.

Clifton Holznagel
Clifton is a performer and projection artist based between Portland, OR and the Gerlach, NV. You may have seen him at Shaking the Tree in Fucking A and The Caucasian Chalk Circle. Most recently he played Rob in California with The Theatre Co. He’s performed at CoHo, Vertigo, defunkt and other various black boxes of Portland’s past decade. His current installation, So Below, a talking mannequin striving for truth is on display in the lobby. It debuted this summer at Shift Festival in Grass Valley, Oregon. He’s made some solo shows, all as weird as possible. Studied with ICP and Dell Arte. Sometimes he’s clownin or makin music. He lives in the Northwest Nevada from May-October managing the tent program for worker housing at Burning Man. He grew up in Ohio City, Cleveland, Ohio and that’s still important to him. Clifton recently began an experiment in itinerancy. Play along at cliftonconnect.net or @cliftonconnect on Instagram.

Rebecca Lingafelter
Rebecca is a theatre artist and educator based in Portland, OR. She has performed and directed locally with Portland Center Stage, Profile, Portland Playhouse, Shaking the Tree, Boom Arts, Third Rail and PETE. New York credits include the Bushwick Starr, The Chocolate Factory, Classic Stage Company and the Metropolitan Opera. She is co-artistic director of PETE and a company member at Third Rail and Chair of the Theatre Department at Lewis & Clark College.

Olivia Matthews
Olivia Mathews (she/they) is a performer, director, deviser, teacher based in Portland, OR. Olivia’s work is process focused, rigorous, expressive and devoted to collaboration as a means of practicing community and self-advocacy. Most recent performance credits include ENDURANCE the boat, the show (CoHo Theatre), From A Hole in the Ground (Corrib Theatre), Blood Wedding and Forbidden Fruit (Shaking the Tree Theatre). Directing credits include Precipice (Vanport Mosaic) and The Americans (PETE). She also holds a certification from Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble’s Institute for Contemporary Performance. Olivia is delighted to be returning to the Shaking the Tree stage for the UBU America reading series!

Jody McCoy
Shaking the Tree and Samantha welcomed Jody to a Portland stage in 2016 with The Doll’s House (Anne Marie). Many years before in 1980 she played Goody Putnam in The Crucible at LCC in Eugene. The opportunity to spend time again with The Crucible, Samantha and all the creative folk drawn to Shaking the Tree is an embarrassment of riches.

Michael Mendelson* 
Michael Mendelson serves as the Managing Artistic Director of The Actors Conservatory, Founder and Artistic Director of Portland Shakespeare Project, and a resident artist at Artists Repertory Theatre. Known in Portland for his talents as an actor, director, and teacher, Michael holds a BFA from Wayne State University and an MFA from the University of Washington’s Professional Actors Training Program. His extensive training includes study with Tanya Berezin in New York City.
Since joining TAC in 2009, Michael has taught courses on Shakespeare, Styles, Meisner Technique, and Professional Orientation, while privately coaching in scene study and monologue development since 2003. His directing work for Portland Shakespeare Project includes The Winter’s Tale, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Tempest, and Lear’s Follies. At Artists Rep, his directing credits include The Importance of Being Earnest, The Understudy, and Intimate Apparel. His acting credits there span The Children, Indecent, 1984, Small Mouth Sounds, Magellanica, and more.
Beyond Portland, Michael's regional work includes credits at Paper Mill Playhouse, A Contemporary Theatre, and Berkeley Shakespeare Festival. Recognized with Drammy Awards, Portland Drama Critics Circle Awards, and the Laughing Horse Theatre Season Award, Michael has also received grants from The Oregon Arts Commission and RACC. He is a proud member of SDC, AEA, and SAG-AFTRA.

Gary Powell
Gary Powell previously appeared at Shaking the Tree as Teiresius in BAKKHAI. He has acted at numerous theater companies throughout the Portland area over the past nearly forty years. The Crucible is one of my very favorite plays.

Rachel Routh
Rachel Lindsey Routh (they/them) is a performer and artist living and working in Portland, OR. They graduated from Southern Oregon University with a BFA in Theatre Arts, and have worked previously with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Oregon Fringe Festival, and the touring puppet troupe Puppeteers for Fears. Since moving to Portland, they were a member of the 22-23 cohort of PETE’s Institute for Contemporary Performance and co-founded experimental theatre company Basement Stair Collective. Recent roles include: Ana in Still, Life, The Monster in SKINSHOW, Baby in GRINDHOUSE (Basement Stair Collective); Vim in Ashland (Ashland New Plays Festival); Arcadia in Our Utopia, deviser/ensemble in Bluebeard (Bag&Baggage).  

David Sikking
David has acted in, directed and produced numerous plays around Portland, and teaches and directs at the Arts & Communication Magnet Academy, where his work with the theatre department has been recognized with the Beaverton Arts Commission's Outstanding Arts Teacher of the Year Award. He’s thrilled to be making his Shaking The Tree debut with the Crucible – a play he last tackled at ART in the role of John Proctor (opposite his lovely wife, Marilyn Stacey in the role of Elizabeth).

Joshua J. Weinstein*
Born and raised in Tallahassee, FL, Josh (he/him) moved to Portland in 2011 to be a member of the Portland Playhouse Acting Apprentice Company. It’s been an honor to call Portland home ever since. This one’s special because Thomas Putnam in The Crucible was the first role I ever played in a full-length production way back in the 9th grade. Thanks, Sam!

Maryellen Wood
Maryellen Wood is thrilled to be back at Shaking the Tree for the Crucible reading after being involved with their Blood Wedding production last year! She recently graduated from The Actor’s Conservatory in the Spring, where she also performed as Ophelia in their production of Hamlet.  Before moving to Portland she attended Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo where she got her BA in Theatre Arts with two minors one in Dance and another in Anthropology and Geography. Some of her other favorite roles include Laura in Chatroom, Dale Prist in 5 Lesbisan Eating a Quiche, and Servant to the Shepherd in The Winter’s Tale.

Sami Yacob-Andrus
Sami Yacob-Andrus is very excited to bring the role of Betty Parris to life in this reading of The Crucible. She is a 2022 Magna Cum Laude graduate of Portland State University where she earned her degree in Liberal Studies, Social Science, and American Sign Language. Sami was most recently seen on stage as Miriam Lawrence in True Story at Artists Repertory Theatre. Other favorite roles include the iconic role of Juliet in Romeo and Juliet with Portland Actors Ensemble, Joyce Cheeks in The No Play with PassinArt Theatre Company, Keisha “lil bit” Cameron in A Song for Coretta with PassinArt Theatre Company, and Alice Wendelken in The Best Christmas Pageant Ever with Lakewood Theatre Company. In addition to theater, Sami is also a SAG-AFTRA member and has been featured in several films, commercials, and television series such as NBC’s Grimm, The Netflix original Film Metal Lords, and co-starred in the Netflix original series American Vandal as Molly Hearst.

Ken Yoshikawa​*
Ken Yoshikawa (he/him) is a poet, actor, and playwright from Portland, Oregon. Ken is a resident artist at The Historic Alberta House and an alumnus of PETE’s ICP program. Recent performance credits include a seagull (PETE), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (PCS), and We Who Are About to Die (ICP). His plays have appeared onstage at Corrib, Shaking the Tree. His full length poetry book Monster Colored Glasses, published with Lightship Press, is available to purchase at yoshikawaken.com. In his free time he enjoys anime, trees, going for walks, hanging with friends, and working as an astrologer.

*Member of Actors' Equity

Creative Team Bios 

Samantha Van Der Merwe (Director)
Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, Samantha Van Der Merwe is the founding Artistic Director of Shaking the Tree Theatre. Founded in 2003, Shaking the Tree Theatre is known for melding the boundaries of theatre and visual art by presenting thrilling and unconventional theatrical experiences. 
Recent directing projects include: The Brother and the Bird (Alissa Nutting/Brothers Grimm), Blood Wedding (Federico García Lorca), Forbidden Fruit (various), Fucking A (Suzan-Lori Parks) Chick Fight (Devised/words by Sara Jean Accuardi), Family (Celine Song), REFUGE (Art Installation/Devised), BAKKHAI (Euripides/Anne Carson), Escaped Alone (Caryl Churchill). 

Emily Hogan (Stage Manager)
EMILY HOGAN is a middle child and a double-Sagittarius. A transplant from Lompoc, CA, Emily studied theater at the University of Portland, focusing on dramaturgy and performance. Emily has performed with Shaking the Tree, Portland Revels, Hand2Mouth, and Milagro. Primarily, Emily works as a stage manager, managing Forbidden Fruit, Fucking A, MODELMINORITY, Chick Fight, and serving as ASM for Family at Shaking the Tree. Emily has also been a dramaturg on numerous productions, such as In A Different Reality She’s Clawing At The Walls (Shaking the Tree), i defy you, stars (Do It For Mead), and The Killing Fields (Orphic). Emily was also able to serve as a teaching artist for Hand2Mouth and Milagro, and is a current Hand2Mouth Company Member. 

Nate Raphael (Tecnical Director)
Nate Raphael is the Technical Director at Shaking the Tree. Recent shows he built with Shaking
the Tree include, The Brother and the Bird, We Wrote This With You in Mind, and Blood
Wedding. If he is not building sets, you can find him building furniture and coaching tennis
among other things in his free time. Education: BA in Fine Art and Sociology, Whitman College